The Stupendous One

On Sunday, October 10, opera lost one of its legends: Joan Sutherland. Ms. Sutherland was one of the most acclaimed sopranos of the 20th century. It's the end of an era. She will be missed.

It was Italy’s notoriously picky critics who dubbed the Australian-born Ms. Sutherland the Stupendous One after her Italian debut, in Venice in 1960. And for 40 years the name endured with opera lovers around the world. Her 1961 debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor,” generated so much excitement that standees began lining up at 7:30 that morning. Her singing of the Mad Scene drew a thunderous 12-minute ovation.

- The New York Times

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